on 12/1/00 8:28 PM, pianolover 88 at pianolover88@hotmail.com wrote:
> I have been making a living as a tuner/tech since 2/00, and find that things
> are REALLY picking up lately
Terry,
Sounds like you are doing all the right things...
Here is some free advice, if you like, worth maybe a couple of million
$'s over the life of a tech...
Keep the clients you serve...as in, hang on to them. Send them
reminder postcards @ 6 or 12 month intervals. Customers are valuable, and
they are 'expensive', in terms of...
#1- the time it takes a tech to get good,
#2- the time it takes to build up a business, and
#3- the time you spend on each instrument.
Also, if you service an instrument on a regular basis, you will have
the oppertunity to get it into good shape. The hard work is at the beginning
of the servicing cycle. Once we have the instument settled down, and
humming, the service call time decreases. As in "faster".
If we leave it up to the customer to call us, when they think it needs
servicing, we end up working extra hard trying to do catch-up work on the
instrument. The piano suffers also.
Another way to look at it... Lets say you do a great job servicing a
modestly neglected (typical) instrument. You get it up to pitch, do a nice
tuning, do some minor voicing and regulating, etc. You do such a good job,
that it doesn't sound bad for three or four years (to the owner). Finally,
the owner determins that its time to get it tuned.
However, as charming as you are, the owner can't remember your name,
(it was Berry something, right?) and they can't find your card. To boot,
since you are making good bucks, you've moved to better digs, etc .and have
a new area code. So, they call someone else. Like me!
Now they are MINE!!!MINE!!!MINE!!!
Dan Reed
Dallas Chapter
P.S. Terry,
If you want info on my experience on reminder cards, please post me.
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